Sunday’s LaLiga game between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid saw a huge surge in viewership on beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Español in the United States as soccer fans tuned in to see who would gain the advantage in Spain’s top flight league.

The live broadcast of Barcelona-Atletico Madrid beat all Spanish-language sports games on Sunday with 539,000 viewers tuning in to watch the Spanish-language broadcast of the game. Plus, 185,000 viewers watched the English-language broadcast on beIN SPORTS.

The total of 752,000 viewers is far greater than what LaLiga games are accustomed to in the United States especially considering the number of homes that both channels are in (22 million for beIN SPORTS and 18 million for beIN SPORTS en Español). With very little promotion or advertising, the 752,000 almost trumped the much more promoted 2017 MLS Cup final (803,000 on ESPN) and December’s Real Madrid-Barcelona Clásico (845,000 viewers on beIN SPORTS and beIN SPORTS en Español combined).

Sunday’s Barca-Aleti match, which ended 1-0 to Barcelona, was number one among adults 18-49 with 340,000 viewers. Plus the viewership was greater than almost every soccer game aired last weekend including MLS’ opening weekend games featuring Houston-Atlanta (469,000; Univision), Seattle-LAFC (456,000; ESPN), LA Galaxy-Portland (180,000; FS1) and Sporting KC-NYCFC (168,000; FS1). The only two matches it failed to beat were Chivas-América (2.5 million; Univision) and Manchester City-Chelsea (785,000; NBCSN & Telemundo).

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

2 Comments

Alex MichalakosMarch 8, 2018

30 years ago when I was a teenager we were lucky to get any type of soccer on TV; NASL was done. There was a weekly Serie A game during the Sunday night Italian program, a weekly game on the Spanish channel, usually Barca or Real, or an international game, and that was pretty much it. Much of it was actually so tedious and boring (Italian League) even for superfans like us but we still had to watch it. We took what we could get and liked it, and could only DREAM of the day we’d have our own league again in the US.
When English League highlights were shown in the late 80’s/early 90’s the soccer was so fast -paced and exciting to watch, but still the snobs turned up their noses at the “quality” of the football.
After MLS started it was unlike what we were used to watching because of the football stadiums and crowd atmosphere. NOW we have a European atmosphere/full stadia, and people still turn their noses up based on ‘quality.’
I see plenty of bad defending, horrible misses in the EPL and games that are unwatchable.
I also was one of those going to the pubs on Saturday morning. I actually prefer to watch MLS for various reasons but I think we should all take a break from competing against each other as to what’s better to watch. You don’t have to be divided into either pro-MLS or pro-Europe. Soccer fans used to be united in their love for watching the game, wherever it was from; now it seems the snobs want to turn it into what’s cooler. Based on how it was in the old days, I’m glad the EPL and LaLiga is popular now, but let’s stop pretending we watch based upon the ‘quality.’ Many of these same people probably watch college football

How about we watch what we want? So you don’t think people watch based on quality? Makes no sense………so hundreds thousands more watched beIN which is a harder to find channel than ESPN or FS 1 because it’s cool? Good lord…………….How about everyone just watch what they want and lets not pretend it’s some patriotic duty to watch MLS. There was bad defense in an EPL games? It’s the same in all leagues, all have some matches that are awful and some that are great, I have watched exciting Greek Super League matches and boring La Liga games, does that mean that league is better? no. I have also watched my nephews soccer team play more exciting games on a weekend than any I saw on TV, does that mean they must be as good as a top league! No. Also your college football analogy is a good one, I can watch an SEC game or an ACC game………I can’t watch Division II or the worst teams the WAC, I mean I can but why would I want to when I have better options.